Trent Lott: “I support the motion to go to conference on S. 1004, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1996. Both the House and the…”

“I support the motion to go to conference on S. 1004, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1996. Both the House and the Senate have passed versions of this bill. The House called for a conference with the Senate to resolve differences in the bill and appointed conferees. The Senate must respond to this request. We need to do this before the recess so staff can meet and have issues ready for the conferees to vote on in early April. My colleague from South Carolina opposes going to conference on this bill. I do not understand why he is so opposed to going forward with this basic process. Last time I checked, conference is the process to resolve differences between the House and the Senate. The House has its bill. We have the Senate bill. Conferees sit down together to iron out the differences. Why should he object? I know there is a provision in the House-passed Coast Guard bill that my colleague opposes. Each year, hundreds of foreign crewmembers file suit in U.S. courts against foreign ship owners in U.S. courts. Since 1989, 724 of these cases have been filed in one Florida county alone. The House bill includes a provision that would address this flood of nonresident crew cases against ship owners being brought in the United States. The House passed this provision as part of the Coast Guard bill twice. Mr. President, I happen to agree with the House provision. There is no public or private policy reason to litigate these cases in the U.S. legal system.”